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Week 15 Target Watch: AFC

Welcome to the AFC targets and touches for Week 15 of the NFL season. The NFC portion can be found with a click of the clicky thing.

I have all the targets for each player since Week 10, and then in parentheses are the total and then average targets per game played for that player. Then below that I have the Red Zone targets and touches for each player, now sorted for rushing attempts and passing targets from Week 10 on. I hope you enjoy and if you get a chance give a follow on Twitter.

Below here I have the running backs who have seen the most rushing attempts inside the opponents’ five yard line this season. You’ll see stud Eddie Lacy leading the way in touchdown percentage while our old friend Willis McGahee is having a bit more trouble. Jamaal Charles has destroyed any critic who thought he couldn’t be an effective goal line back and the same would be true for Joique Bell if people talked about him as much as they did Charles before the season started. So take a look at these if that’s something you’re into.

Marlon Brown hit double digit targets for the first time and also had the game winning reception. He finished the day with seven receptions on 11 targets for 92 yards and that game winner. This was in stark contrast to Torrey Smith who had just five targets, catching one for 7 yards.

The big target news wasn’t Brown though; it was Dennis Pitta who just returned from his hip injury and tied Brown with 11 targets and caught six for 48 yards and a touchdown. Pitta’s return should mean fewer targets for Brown even though it didn’t happen this week.

Editor's Note: Rotoworld's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-week $300,000 Fantasy Football league for Week 15. It's $25 to join and first prize is $25,000. Starts Sunday at 1pm ET. Here's the FanDuel link.

There wasn’t much production from the Bills offense with E.J. Manuel throwing four interceptions. Stevie Johnson led the way once again with 11 targets catching five for 67 yards to lead the team. Yeah, that’s not what you want leading your team.

Fred Jackson had his highest target total of the season with seven as Manuel was in come from behind mode and dumping it off to him, but he only caught four for 26 yards.

Good Andy Dalton showed up for this game and completed 24-of-35 passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns while also getting into the end zone on a run. This of course follows a four game stretch where he went 83-of-154 (53.9%) for an average of 223 yards and a total of six touchdowns and nine interceptions. Of course before that he was absolutely on fire. His streakiness is a fantasy football nightmare.

Giovani Bernard led the team in yards with 148 on 16 touches, but BenJarvus Green-Ellis got into the end zone twice from the one-yard line. Well, “twice” is a strong word considering he was down before he crossed the line the first time, but the fake and real points both counted. On the season Green-Ellis has 12 rushing attempts from inside the opponent’s five-yard line and has six touchdowns while Gio Bernard has three attempts and two touchdowns. Green-Ellis’ 50% is very good, but there’s no doubt the quicker, yet still strong and compact Bernard would have similar or better numbers if given the chance. On the season The Law Firm has 196 touches for 674 yards and six touchdowns while Bernard has 178 touches for 1,023 yards and seven touchdowns. Bernard is averaging 4.7 yards per carry while Green-Ellis is at 3.4 yards per carry. Bernard also is doing quite well in pass blocking with a positive 2.2 grade from Pro Football Focus while Green-Ellis is also in the green, but with a slightly worse 1.7 grade. So the fewer touches doesn’t seem like they are based on his pass blocking. Yes, he’s a rookie and could hit “the rookie wall” and splitting time doesn’t seem bad, even giving Green-Ellis short yardage to save the rookie from getting beat up too much could make some sense, but Bernard has won the lead back job by a large margin this season and should be getting the bulk of the touches each week. Steps down from soapbox.

So this Jason Campbell fellow isn’t too bad in the Norval/Chud system huh? He pretty much had his way with the Patriots last week completing 29-of-44 for 391 yards and three touchdowns. Of course it doesn’t hurt when you have Josh Gordon and Jordan Cameron on your team.

Gordon now holds the record for receiving yards in a four game span with 774. That’s the same number that Larry Fitzgerald has through 13 games and more than Mike Wallace, Marques Colston, Steve Smith, Dwayne Bowe, Riley Cooper and other good wide receivers have for the year. So yeah, that’s a bunch of yards. During that four game stretch he also leads the league in targets with 57, so he is getting his chances and making good on them.

Eric Decker has led the team in targets over the last two weeks along with receptions, yards and touchdowns. Wes Welker probably would have beaten him out in targets last week if he hadn’t been concussed before halftime because he had a ten before leaving the game. But he left and Decker was next in line for this game. Over the last two games he has caught 16 of 24 targets for 291 yards and five touchdowns. That caught him up with the rest of the receivers pretty quickly and Decker leapfrogged Welker in the fantasy rankings to 10th overall while Welker fell all the way to a tie for 13th. Of course Demaryius Thomas is third overall and that puts three wide receivers for the Broncos in the top 13. Peyton Manning’s ability to keep his receivers happy is pretty uncanny. And if Julius Thomas was a wide receiver he’d rank 15th and he missed two games!

Over the last four games Garrett Graham has 47 targets, which leads all tight ends and is third to Josh Gordon and his teammate Andre Johnson. In that span he’s had two big games and a couple of not so great games. But his 23 receptions for 277 yards rank him third in that span for tight ends. It looks like Case Keenum is ok with throwing him the ball over and over and that’s good for fantasy.

Andre Johnson is ahead of Graham in targets because he had an amazing 21 in Thursday’s game at Jacksonville. He ended up catching 13 for 154 yards in come from behind mode, which is PPR porn.

Da’Rick Rogers was the receiving star for the Colts as they got into garbage time mode after falling behind 21-0 in the third quarter. He tied Coby Fleener for the high target mark for the team with nine, but unlike Fleener he did something with those targets as he caught six of them for 107 yards and two touchdowns.

Darrius Heyward-Bey played 21 snaps compared to 45 for T.Y. Hilton, 42 for LaVon Brazill and 41 for Rogers. It’s good to see his play finally reflecting his time on the field.

Brazill also caught two touchdowns on four targets for three receptions and 53 yards. We can’t count on him getting any more touchdowns this season, but it’s very good for Andrew Luck that Brazill and Rogers are playing ahead of DHB now.

Hilton is in a big slump right now with an average of 4.25 receptions and 33.8 yards over the last four games. With Rogers stepping up the target breakdown going forward is going to be hard to predict.

The Jaguars jumped out to a 14-0 lead on the Texans and never relinquished it. Maurice Jones-Drew was the fantasy leader in this game with 123 total yards on 16 touches including a passing touchdown to Ace Sanders. Otherwise the targets and fantasy points were spread out enough for no one player to really have much to speak of. Cecil Shorts led with seven targets, but only had two receptions for 13 yards and a touchdown.

Backup quarterback Chase Daniel saw his first action of the season and Alex Smith wasn’t hurt, so you know this was a blowout. The Chiefs got back to their winning ways after a three game losing streak and did it with defense and Jamaal Charles, just like they had in their nine game winning streak. So that means their defense and Jamaal Charles were once again the fantasy heroes. Dwayne Bowe did get into the end zone on four receptions for 69 yards from a team-high five targets (Andre Johnson had 21 for a funny comparison).

Jamaal Charles once again asserted his fantasy dominance as he rushed for 151 yards on 19 carries and scored two touchdowns, one rushing and one receiving. He leads all running backs in fantasy points and is many teams’ fantasy MVP for this year.

After catching five of eight targets for 51 yards and a touchdown against the Steelers Brian Hartline has 111 targets to Mike Wallace’s 108 and has more receptions, yards and touchdowns. But Hartline doesn’t lead the pass catchers in fantasy points, that distinction goes to tight end/fullback Charles Clay after catching seven of 10 targets for 97 yards and two touchdowns.

Unfortunately this offense isn’t the Broncos’ so three players with similar receiving numbers doesn’t make for top 15 production.

With Rob Gronkowski injured Danny Amendola saw his highest number of targets since Week 5, but Shane Vereen was the real target king with 17. He ended up catching 12 for 153 yards, which set a record for Patriots’ running backs. He also ran in a touchdown, so not a bad day all around. Julian Edelman saw nine targets and caught six for 64 yards and a touchdown.

Vereen, Edelman and Amendola look like they’ll all see plenty of work with Gronkowski done for the season.

Chris Ivory looks healthy (knock on wood) and ran the ball 18 times for 76 yards and a touchdown while Bilal Powell ran eight times for 14 yards. Ivory will still be hurt when the team is in pass first mode, but he continues to run strong when given a chance.

Jeremy Kerley and Kellen Winslow returned for this game, Kerley from injury and Winslow from lack of targets. They led the team with seven and six targets and gave Geno Smith some good outlet options.

Since Matt McGloin took over Rod Streater has 31 targets, 21 receptions, 361 yards and two touchdowns over the last four games. Denarius Moore looks like he’ll return this week, but I think McGloin feels pretty comfortable with Streater at this point.

Marcel Reece performed his usual magic when given the chance. With both Darren McFadden and Rashad Jennings out for this game Reece ran 19 times for 123 yards and caught two passes for 38 yards. This was the first game an opposing running back ran for 100 yards against the Jets this season. Actually, it’s the first time a running back has run for over 72 yards against them.

Jerricho Cotchery had nine targets, his biggest total since Week 2. He tied Antonio Brown with the target lead for the day and caught five passes for 62 yards and a touchdown. This was his seventh touchdown in the last six games. On the season he has just 65 targets to Brown’s 134, but he has 17 red zone targets to Brown’s 15 which is why Brown has seven touchdowns to Cotchery’s nine.

Even though Brown had the same amount of targets, receptions and touchdowns as Cotchery, he had 137 yards receiving. His ability after the catch is one of the best in the league.

After throwing eight touchdowns in the first seven games, Ben Roethlisberger has thrown 16 in his last six. In those six games he is averaging 299 yards passing, 2.67 touchdowns and .5 interceptions a game, which ranks him as the fourth best fantasy quarterback in that span.

Philip Rivers was a technician in this one as he completed 21-of-28 passes for 249 yards and three touchdowns as the Chargers dismantled the Giants. Keenan Allen led the team in yardage and two touchdowns, but only had three targets. He caught all three for 59 yards and the touchdowns, but missed some of the game with a shoulder injury. Rivers spread the ball around well with six players seeing three to four receptions. Antonio Gates led the way with six targets while stud-to-be Ladarius Green had just one target, which was incomplete. Eddie Royal played in this one after sitting out last week, which took away some of Green’s targets.

Over the last eight games Ryan Mathews ranks as the 12th best fantasy running back. He has 140 rushing attempts for 651 yards and four touchdowns at 4.7 yards per carry with 13 receptions for 91 yards. During that span he has 153 touches to Danny Woodhead’s 90. Over the last two weeks Mathews has 51 touches to Woodhead’s 20. It looks like the Chargers might trust our old friend Mr. Mathews.

Kendall Wright had three targets against Denver. That is an amazing number since it is the least number of targets he’s seen in a game all season. It looks like injuries are catching up with Wright and he’ll be a dicey play going forward.

Justin Hunter had another big day with four receptions on a team high eight targets for 114 yards and a touchdown. He is extremely inconsistent so isn’t worth playing in the fantasy playoffs, but it looks like they have their new number one receiver.